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A Health Information Management professional, I survived a life-threatening emergency with information that only a person of my professional experience would know. And I’m sharing it!
Showing posts with label Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Show all posts
UPDATE: Click Hear the Recorded Show! Turn your speakers up as the international call sounded soft. The show cuts out due to a technical glitch at one point, then starts again. Stay with the program ;^ D
Learn how I helped myself and other people to overcome horrific, debilitating pain with simple, can-do strategies. And find out what I taught to some pleasantly surprised medical professionals!
Money-saving, sanity-preserving info will be part of the presentation.
All in a day's work (mine starts before dawn). Early this morning I sent this message in response to an information request from a USA Today Reporter:
Katy I suggest reading the Coping with Pain section in It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry If I Need To: EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge for solutions that cost less than a few dollars. Some readers have hugged me in gratitude for those "THEY WORK!" ideas (x, y, z and then some!) The e-book and print edition save lots of wear and tear on a reader's nerves, let alone their wallets. Doctors recommend this book for a reason. It's helping people worldwide.
Name: Katy Tomasulo USA Today Category: Biotech and Healthcare Email: Media Outlet: USA Today Deadline: 1:00 PM EST - 11 May
Query:
I am compiling pain management products for an upcoming "Pain Management" magazine published by USA Today. I'm looking for products aimed at relieving chronic pain for all parts of the body, including feet, back, and head. I am only interested in non-drug-related products. These might include but aren't limited to insoles, heating pads, rubs, etc.
Requirements: Please reply to this query with a brief description of the product and, if available, a link to more information. Please do not send attachments as they will not make it through the HARO system. I will contact you for additional information, images, and pricing once we've narrowed down the submissions. Thanks very much!
Many of my real life and cyber acquaintances are in physical pain due to accidents and/or to eating nutrition-challenged "foods" for Easter (candy only looks cute in the box, not in your gut) and Passover (too often overloaded with sugar and eggs, let alone matza). It's a memorable lesson in the harm that sugar and dietary excess can cause to human bodies.
Here are some helpful and quite economical tips from the "Coping with Pain" section of
I was in a freak accident in which my left elbow and ulna (a long, slim bone in the forearm) were broken in multiple locations. I’d been left-handed lifelong.
My disability was significant and my level of pain due to the complicated fracture was too awful to describe here. I took powerful painkillers that only removed a bit of the mega-wattage agony. Doctors in the hospital eventually gave me morphine so I could endure arm-saving surgery.
Physical therapy was a matter of raw courage. I wept through several sessions, struggling to restore the use of my hand, forearm and upper arm. I stopped taking narcotic painkillers over time, fearful of addiction problems from prolonged use.
Then I gradually put together an all-natural pain-reducing plan that worked.
Here’s some potentially helpful information for anyone healing from a bone fracture as I did, or for anyone interested in protecting their bone health.
I minimized the pain by:
· Using my Personal Pain-o-Meter (explained a few paragraphs below)
· Listening to soothing music
· Sitting in cheer-me-up sunshine (which provides Vitamin D for strong teeth and bones) with and without friends
· Basing part of my grocery list on advice from Dr. Neal Barnard’s Foods That Fight Pain book. I bought it after interviewing Dr. Barnard about some of his innovative health-promoting techniques several years ago (I’m still a health writer/journalist for hire, folks).
Shop as I do and you just might feel better after buying from the organic green-grocer and health food store:
Almonds with Raisins (really!)
Beans (soak them for a day, changing water 2-3 times so you won’t develop belly bloat)
Broccoli Capsaicin Cream (a natural remedy made of chili pepper extracts!)
Fresh and powdered Ginger Root
Fresh Figs and/or Fig Jelly
Sweet Potatoes
Vitamin B6 (50-150 mg)
Vitamin E 400 IU
Zinc
I ate the foods in abundance and took the vitamins once daily.
These old standbys also helped me:
· Arnica Montana (a natural remedy that resembles tiny white pills)
· Cuprum Metallicum (a natural remedy that also resembles tiny white pills)
· Rescue Remedy Cream
· Rescue Bach Remedy Drops
· Any bar of soap at all. I have no idea why this folk remedy works, but after I place a bar of soap under a sweatshirt sleeve, under sheets, or upon some other area of sore muscles, the pain reduces noticeably.
Be sure to visit www.NutritionMD.org for more information about the role of nutrition in a variety of diseases and conditions.
Oh – if you or the person you're caring for can't swallow pills, here are some possible solutions to the problem:
Crush the pills. Place them in a plastic sandwich bag and step on them if you lack a pill crushing appliance. Then mix the bits with applesauce. Be sure to shake all the powder into the applesauce, too.
Warm liquid jell-o is another alternative. Pudding works. So does pleasant-tasting yogurt. The idea is to provide a slippery, pleasant-tasting food in the mouth so that the medication will go into the tummy with it. The pleasant taste prevents gag reflex problems. The slippery textures make the swallowing much easier despite the fear of swallowing the pills. And children will be eager for more dessert at medication time. Be sure to remind them that the medicine is not dessert, the pudding, applesauce, jell-o or yogurt perform that yummy job.
Do you suffer from leg cramps that wake you during the night? I sympathize. Here are my suggestions for preventing them:
PREVENT LEG CRAMPS
1. DRINK WATER - dehydration can play a part in leg cramps.
2. Stretch your calves during the day and night, especially before bed.
3. Riding a bicycle is one of the best preventatives, but a stationary bicycle a few minutes in the evening can help, too.
4. Keep your blankets and sheets loose at the foot of the bed to prevent your toes from pointing downward as you sleep.
5. Prolonged sitting, poor or abnormal posture or inefficient biomechanics (possibly related to poor flexibility) may cause leg cramping. Compensate as best you can.
6. Do the "Seaweed Soak": eating seaweed and drinking seaweed previously soaked in water before a meal. Eat, juice or blend good amounts of green leafy vegetables (parsley, squash, Swiss chard, etc.) and carrots, etc. Munch on sesame seeds and even add them to nut milks (e.g., almond milk). These foods hold tremendous amounts of magnesium, calcium, etc. which are very important for muscle comfort and function. You can learn about juicing and making nut milks in books or online.
7. Mix 1 teaspoon organic honey and 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar. Drink it once daily to prevent muscle cramps.
Certain leg stretching exercises can also help.
1. Stand 30 inches from the wall. 2. While keeping your heels on the floor, lean forward, put your hands on the wall, and slowly move your hands up the wall as far as you can reach comfortably. 3. Hold the stretched position for 30 seconds. Release. 4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 two more times. 5. For best results, practice this exercise in the morning, before your evening meal, and before going to bed each night.
Let's shift focus now, to Mind over Matter. Want to know how a Personal Pain-o-Meter works?
My recovery from that severely broken arm (doctors had to install a permanent metal brace under the skin, along my bones, in order to save the arm) had been challenging, to put it politely. I'd wept from awful, awful pain that major painkillers (including morphine) hardly affected. But I learned to cope with the agony by reducing it at will. Now I'm ready to share that technique with you.
Want relief from the physical pain of your medical condition? Try this nifty trick. Turn down the dial on your Personal Pain-o-Meter, a terrific technique that friend/Life Coach Ben Goldfarb taught me. Pain that does not serve a function is pain we can banish at will.
Go on. Create a dial in your mind. Study it. Say the level of your pain out loud: "On a scale from one to ten, ten being the worst level of pain, I have a pain level of... (fill in the blank with a number from 1-10)," then say this out loud, "I can lower my pain. I'm lowering it to (name the ever-lower wattage at each new pain-lowering session)..."
Then do it. Imagine the arrow on your Personal Pain-o-Meter dialing downward. Push it down with your mind. Choose to reduce your pain. Aim for less than half your present pain level.
Try again until you make progress. Yes, I know it's difficult. I do this exercise, too. My physical therapy workouts were not pleasant. C'mon. Try it again.
You can set aside time as often as needed to work at aiming that arrow increasingly down. You'll know you've succeeded when you realize that your discomfort feels significantly less than it felt earlier. Keep spinning that arrow down until your pain is as low as possible.
Ta-daaa, this is your one-step solution for pain reduction:
CHOOSE TO LOWER YOUR PAIN, AND TO REDUCE YOUR SUFFERING.
How good is my book? A local marriage therapist told me today that she's been reading it to soothe her back pain. Now she's pain-free!
That therapist had heard me speaking about It's My Crisis! in Jerusalem and made sure to buy her own copy. She and other people are fascinated with my rapid recovery from RSD (what a NIGHTMARE that was!) let alone from my brain tumor and its negative effects, and they're booking me to speak in their social venues within Israel and abroad. My public appearances schedule is filling up!
I'll be delighted to share my insights about how to cope and/or heal against the odds, how to re-engineer your thoughts, feelings, deeds and words so that your self-esteem and healing abilities ZOOM forward!
I'll explain how to mimic what I've done to build my courage, to face my fears, and to overcome setbacks. You can do that, too. I'll share the techniques with you as we share laughter, insight about the human mind and body, and the spiritual realities affecting all of us.
Until we meet face-to-face, you can focus on this thought: Hebrew, the mother of all languages, lacks a word for "is."
The reason is philosophical: We are Works in Progress.
If we were a miserable mess of humanity one day, then worked to improve our attitudes and behaviors over time, we became better and different people as each second ticked by.
For the minute we behaved graciously, politely, compassionately, we were gracious, polite, compassionate people. We did not remain in a static state of unchanging reality. We literally morphed into better people than we were!
Scared that the opposite can also be true? That a person can become worse over time? You're correct, but... the downward slide can be reversed to an upswing. With enough effort (whatever it takes per person and their individual state of consiousness), all the negative energy you've released in life can be transformed into solid-state productivity and positivity.
What do YOU want to become? Patient? Happy? Insightful? Studious? Brave? Pain-free? Healthier in mind and/or body?
Do what I did. Do what Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison and many other people once considered to be at extreme disadvantages have done: Work at achieving your goals no matter who criticizes you or how!!!!!!!!!!
Honor your goals by working towards them. Every micron of achievement you make adds up over time. And when being upbeat becomes your nature, well-l-l, you're going to have a hard time convincing anyone that you used to be...
Start today. Look in your mirror and say, "I can choose my thoughts, feelings and actions. And I'm choosing to make them Positive!"
Do this exercise daily. Let it grow on you and influence you. Replace the negativity in your mind with POSITIVITY the same way a macro does "Replace All" with a click of the keys on your computer's keyboard. Yep, you can replace the mistaken, counterproductive stuff in your head with a Purposely Positive Point of View.
Here's a wink from me until we meet in real time,
Yojeved Golani Coping with a Medical Crisis? Make the Changes You Need in Your Life.
Hmmm, I wrote a book describing how I survived the emotional and physical shock of a BENIGN brain tumor that had been killing me (let alone the after-effects of the dangerous surgery). Then I began speaking to interested groups and individuals about how I did it. But the least convinced listeners to my tale of victory are some of the very people who saved my life: Doctors!
I've long wondered how to augment my assertiveness in describing my life-preserving techniques to medical skeptics. Now I've found one potential resource for success: bluezones.com. This doctor-created site describes well-researched geographical areas of longevity around the globe and how the long-lived people there earned
BIG
Birthdays.
Every bit of advice - succinctly explained in 9 Powerful Longevity Boosters - at bluezones.com is in It's MY Crisis! And I’ll Cry if I Need To.
Better yet, It's MY Crisis! And I’ll Cry if I NeedTo holds even MORE life-sustaining information than you'll find at Blue Zones. It's MY Crisis! also holds how-to information, humorous takes on the difficulties of life PLUS a global "Resource" section for locating the things you need to cope with medical crises.
To name just a few of those necessary items in my book's Resource section:
Dietary Suggestions proven to Help and/or to HEAL
Low-cost or free medication,
Contact information for leading health-care practitioners and medical practices, and mental health professionals (including SUCCESSFUL complimentary medicine professionals)
How to get in on clinical trials and free medical care,
Low-cost or free medical appliances (e.g. hearing aids, canes, crutches, walkers, medical machines, Seeing Eye Dogs),
Help with Problematic Pregnancies (and with fertility issues)
Suggested Reading and Listening Materials
And so much more.
And consider this: Unlike websites that market more than you bargained for, my book does not hold advertisements! You get unbiased information that I collected from reliable resources worldwide. No annoying pop-up ads, no irritating jingles in your ears. Just pleasant reading endorsed by medical and mental health professionals, clergy of different faiths and even an NIH researcher. All this in one convenient package: an affordable workbook to be shared with friends, family and caregivers if you wish.
When you want even more cheerful support, you can contact me for Self-Help Coaching services at giveretgolani@gmail.com.
OK, back to the skeptics to whom I'm offering an educational dialogue: I look forward to fielding questions from medical professionals around the world. The healing arts are not based simply upon science. The human heart, mind and soul are an intricate part of the medical mix. And uh, not everything can be explained to us mortals solely by statistics, experimentation and empirical knowledge, can it, doctors?
Find out something you never knew about "unusual" cases of spontaneous and other inexplicable recoveries and the people who've experienced them. I have loads of other information to share with you in addition to the Blue Zone site. I'm one click away at giveretgolani@gmail.com.
Still need convincing, Doctor? Okay. Ask me how it could be that a board-certified Orthopedist declared IN PRINT on OFFICIAL MEDICAL RECORDS - only today - that I HAVE OFFICIALLY AND UNQUESTIONABLY RECOVERED FROM DEVASTATING RSD/CRPS in less than three months! Not everyone recovers from that diagnosis. And if they do recover, it's just not in such a short amount of time.
You're a medical professional. You want to improve the Quality of Life for your RSD/CRPS or other patients. Ask yourself "How is this possible that Miss Golani recovered so quickly?" If you need the answer, you know what to do ;^ )
~*~*~*~
Want to learn many more can-do healing/coping strategies? Then read, benefit from, and tell others about It's MY Crisis! And I’ll Cry if I Need To.
Order it in book stores anywhere if it’s not on the shelves. It's MY Crisis! And I’ll Cry if I Need To can be shipped worldwide. Specialty editions are available for large organizations.
Find out why more than 2570 votes of praise have been made for my book since December 2 2007. That's when the Musella Foundation for Brain Tumor Research declared It’s MY Crisis to be “Recommended Reading.”
You can vote for It's MY Crisis! And I’ll Cry if I Need To on the Musella site daily. Just click
This morning I waltzed my way into another Occupational Therapy appointment in full Purim garb. The staff laughed at my choice of matpekhet (costume, in Hebrew) and my sense of humor for poking fun at my medical issues.
You can get a glimpse of me as Boo-Boo Barbie down below. I wore the red dress for Purim evening and the pink outfit during the day. In one photo I'm holding the arm brace I no longer need, and balancing the cane that once supported me. Don't I look glam as a blond bomshell with kewl shades and colorful bandaids, laughing off my troubles?
Then we began our work. The exercises soon stopped so the startled therapist could measure the vastly improved supination, pronation, flexion and extension (medicalese for forms of movement) of my affected arm and hand.
She about cried for joy with me as I thanked GOD Almighty for the miracle. The One Above let my team of medical experts help me to heal from a devastating injury.
The supervisor was immediately alerted to the fact that the classic signs and symptoms of RSD/CRPS are rapidly lessening and disappearing from my previously injured and almost pain-free limb. Two telltale signs are simply GONE!
What happened next?
The supervisor proudy displayed a copy of my book for coping with medical crises to her staff. She wants everyone who arrives at that office to learn my strategies for coping with medical crises. AND she hopes that therapy clients will learn how to overcome their challenges with the right attitude and behavior.
~*~*~*~
Suffering with a Medical Crisis?
Been there, done that (AGAIN), wrote a book about it, and going forward into the future.
Folks, I've been weighing my words for a while, wondering how to explain to you another of the miracles in my life. I'll go for the briefest possible chronological explanation I can cobble together and hope I effectively communicate to you about the phenomenon in my life these days.
Bear in mind that the following is NOT a comprehensive account of personal events. That would take weeks to type out!
Dec. 20 2007 My elbow and wrist break in a freak accident
Dec. 20 2007 The orthopedic doctor who tends to my arm errs but I do not realize it until...
Dec. 30 2007, upon admission to the emergency room of a local hospital after I've fainted from increasing pain over the past 10 days. Turns out that the guy who set my arm increased the damage. According to the specialists who admitted me, assessed the problem and performed surgery, the errant doctor should have sent me by ambulance to this very hospital for immediate surgery instead of providing a flimsy splint and unstable cloth sling and telling me to see a doctor in three weeks! I should have been put into what is called an "Immobilizer" (constructed with specialized materials) that prevents further movement of the healing arm for the prompt, arm-saving journey.
Jan. 7 2008 surgery stabilizes my very deteriorated arm. The long wait for this operation was due to circumstances beyond my control and that of my doctors (we live in a country besieged by terrorists and filled with their victims). My arm is temporarily casted in plaster, then soon encased/immobilized in a special hinged device to promote maximum healing for several weeks.
Upon removal of that hinged device mentioned above, I begin aggressive Physical and Occupational Therapy to restore the use of my crooked arm (the stiffened elbow does not yet extend my arm) and stiff hand. Elbow fractures are among the most difficult types of bone breaks to heal, as doctors know.
Elbow fractures, my sore wrist and my bonus Comminuted Ulna Fracture (a "Complicated Fracture" to medical folks) made treatment and recovery quite delicate and painful. Doctors prescribe a common painkiller that helps me a lot. We stop using it before I become accidentally addicted. But within days, the shockingly high pain necessitates a trip to the emergency room. That doctor restores the previous medication to my life ("You don't have an addictive personality," he announces), advises less aggressive PT/OT and the situation improves. For a while.
I continue less aggressive therapy until I'm advised to use a different painkiller. And I begin using an arm-straightening brace several hours daily, as well as a device to increase the flexibility of my fingers.
But something goes seriously wrong... The new drug makes me vomit violently for several hours. My doctors end drug treatment and prescribe moist heat packs, relaxation techniques, accupuncture and nerve stimulation. They worry about how to relieve my fluctuating pain. So do I. I try EFT, massage and more.
Within days my surgeon, therapists and I realize that my pain is not lessening as much as expected. My arm and hand movements are not improving as much or as quickly as expected, either. The pain becomes so awful that I eventually fall to the floor from a seated position, fainting in front of friends at a social event.
Another emergency admission to the hospital leads to me to a very savvy doctor and a frightening Diagnosis: Reflexive Sympathetic Dystrophy also known as CRPS, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.
Though the medical world's jury is still out regarding the CAUSE of RSD/CRPS, I strongly suspect two culprits: 1. The substandard treatment I received on the day of my fall (it caused a bigger fracture) AND 2. The delay in my desperately needed surgery.
RSD is a degenerative condition that (according to textbooks) can be solved ONLY one of two ways: the upbeat psychological condition of the patient OR a drug cocktail that lessens pain while relaxing patient until the fracture heals and the pain resolves.
Upbeat is my nature, as the medical team kept noticing despite all that was happening with me (one kept laughing with me during some hilarious discussions). So a new doctor (a pain specialist) on my team added a particular drug cocktail to my diet while I prayed for a cure. I return home, still praying.
AND THEN the VERY UNEXPECTED HAPPENS: I suffer a horrible reaction to the drug cocktail on day two. I forget who and where I am, then fall from lack of balance during a stroll outdoors. A friend treats me with CraniosSacral Therapy. She ends the mental haze within minutes and provides pain-reduction techniques that work.
Next day, I meet with my personal physician. She believes the painkilling cocktail dose was too high for any normal person. "It could have felled an elephant!" she hollered at the prescribing doctor (no longer on my team).
It takes several days for the effects of the drug cocktail to leave my system. Ill and frightened, I realize how strong a Death Wish drug addicts have. I'd NEVER go through this experience voluntarily!
Talk about stuck! My sunny disposition is not helping my arm to heal and now drugs won't work. My worried surgeon (I adore his conscientious, caring attitude) and the growing team of medical experts on my case recommend the use of a Pain Management Clinic (it uses therapies other than drugs when necessary) and using even more gentle PT/OT methodology. WHEW!
But progress again proves to be too slow. We have a limited window of opportunity to heal the arm/hand muscles before the opportunity is lost. RED FLAGS go up with everyone on my now HUGE medical team. And (thanks to bureaucratic snafus) I'm still waiting for my first Pain Management Clinic appointment.
So how do I expedite the healing of my arm and hand while enjoying the aggression-reduced PT/OT? Read on.
I decide to laugh at my plight instead of letting it ruin my life. I prepared a hilarious costume for the forthcoming Jewish holiday of PURIM. It pokes fun at my medical dilemma so much that... More on that soon ;^ )
Thanks to the down-graded pressure in PT/OT and lots of giggles since then, I've been almost pain-free for about a week. At most I need an aspirin, NOT narcotic painkillers or sedatives. And with my clearer, more focused mind, I realize that there are MORE than two ways to conquer RSD/CRPS!
I call the woman who wrote the dedication in my book: that certified CranioSacral Therapist who helped me out of the accidental overdose. We book appointments to complement my PT/OT schedule. I also book appointments with another CST professional who can fill in when my preferred practitioner is unavailable.
Treatment One: Resolved the drug overdose problem that has clouded my mind for days, as you know.
Treatment Two: We get my arm to reach across my chest and face in a limp manner. I do NOT need to cry out in pain. My elbow loosens up so much that my crooked arm becomes almost entirely straight! NO stiffness or pain.
Treatment Three: We increase the flexibility of my wrist and fingers by several degrees. Painless!
My PT/OT team is shocked at my sudden leap forward during a subsequent appointment. The skin color on my affected arm is dramatically better, as are the flexibility and pain-free status.
Major Improvement, hmm? More movement and NO PAIN.
CranioSacral Therapy. Doing for me what Western medicine could not.
Stand by for more good news, G'D willing. And maybe a photo of me in my Purim regalia next week...
And, uh, Doctors on my "Whazzup with this Chick?" team, though you never admit it to me, I know you peek at my blog cuz I can track the visitors to my site. I also overhear your remarks when you think I'm out of earshot. I salute you. You're dedicated professionals who preserved my arm (let alone my sanity!). We're working together to fully restore it. My progress couldn't have happened without your compassionate and terrific care. Hugs, Yoji
~*~*~*~
Suffering with a Medical Crisis?
Been there, done that, wrote a book about it, and going forward into the future
Want to learn many more can-do healing/coping strategies? Then read, benefit from, and tell others about It's MY Crisis! And I’ll Cry if I Need To.
